AVONDALE, Ariz.: Chase Elliott put it all on the line during Sunday’s Bluegreen Vacations 500 at ISM (Ariz.) Raceway, but a cut left-rear tire in Stage 3 at Lap 166 of 312 ended his championship hopes with an unplanned meeting with the Turn 2 wall.
Elliott was running third behind leader Joey Logano and second-place runner Denny Hamlin who his No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 broke loose and slammed into the Turn 2 wall destroying the rear-end of his Hendrick Motorsports car.
“Just a continuation of our first two weeks,” Elliott said. “I feel like we were in a good position to run solid. Not sure why we had a tire go down, I think that’s what happened. These last three weeks have been rough.”
The Round of 8 in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs has been disastrous for NASCAR’s most popular driver and his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports team.
After finishing second at Kansas Speedway in the Round of 12, Elliott carried momentum towards the opening race of the semi-final round race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
But the weekend was anything but great.
After losing an engine in practice, Elliott qualified second but had to start the race from the rear of the field because of the engine change. He muscled his way inside the top-10 by the end of Stage 1, but later went to the garage with mechanical issues and stuck it out for a 36th place finish.
A week later at Texas Motor Speedway, Elliott got loose early in the race and slapped the wall. With a damaged race car, he wrestled an ill-handling car to a 32nd place finish.
Knowing he was in a must-win scenario for the penultimate race of the season, Elliott had high hopes for ISM Raceway. He finished second in Stage 1 to Denny Hamlin and the two continued their tussle throughout Stage 2 – but the battle was for second. Hamlin eventually prevailed in the closing laps.
On the restart, the two once again duked it out for the runner-up spot before Hamlin pulled away. A few laps later, the tire gave way and Elliott’s championship hopes were doomed.
Before the crash, Elliott said track position was key to staying near the front at ISM Raceway.
“You’re racing really hard and it’s like slow motion,” Elliott added. It’s just hard to make a lot happen in a little amount of time. You really just have to think about what’s coming and where lapped cars ahead of you are running and where the person in front of you is running if you’re better than he.
“It’s definitely tough. It was a tough race to that point. I enjoyed racing there towards the end of that stage. I thought we were racing hard. You never want to have a round go like that.”
Out of the championship 4, the Dawsonville, Ga. native says his team will focus on winning Homestead and getting a jump start on 2020.
“Hopefully Homestead goes better, and we can get prepared good for next season and get a good notebook for next year.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
